Obama Defends Military Intervention at UN, Calls for More

During his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama (left, at podium) boasted about the alleged successes of U.S. and international military interventions from Libya and Iraq to the Ivory Coast and Afghanistan — even calling on the UN to wage more wars to promote peace if necessary. But according to critics, the results and justifications for the operations Obama cited leave much to be desired.

After noting that American troops would be leaving Iraq by the end of the year and that an “increasingly capable” regime in Afghanistan was beginning to take charge, Obama claimed that “the tide of war is receding.” He promptly followed that statement by discussing other nations where U.S. and UN troops are either currently waging war or recently did so.

Obama then offered a list of more countries that should — in his mind, at least — be next in the crosshairs. Iran and Syria featured prominently among the future targets.

“There is no excuse for inaction,” he declared. “Throughout the region, we will have to respond to the calls for change.” Obama also mentioned — albeit much more mildly — U.S. allies such as Bahrain and Yemen, where the U.S. government has been waging a secret war for years.

Among the examples of supposedly successful military interventions listed in Obama's UN speech was the violent overthrow of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. “The world refused to look the other way,” Obama declared, mistakenly claiming that Gbagbo had lost the election. “The Security Council, led by the United States, Nigeria, and France, came together to support the will of the people.”

But as The New Americanreported at the time, the reality was far different. Vote fraud and ballot-box stuffing resulted in the nation’s Constitutional Council declaring incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo the election winner. And that was supposed to be the final word.

The international coalition then installed a Muslim central banker named Alassane Ouattara as the Ivory Coast’s new ruler. But despite the impression given by Obama in his speech, critics say the campaign was an illegitimate and bloody disaster that should have never happened.

Next on the President’s list of multilateral military interventions to be emulated was the war in Libya. “The United Nations lived up to its charter,” he said. “The Security Council authorized all necessary measures to prevent a massacre.”

Claiming that “today, Libya is free,” Obama opined: “This is how the international community is supposed to work — nations standing together for the sake of peace and security.... Now, all of us have a responsibility to support the new Libyan government.”

What he failed to mention is that the rebels — armed and supported by Western powers well before official intervention began — are being led by the very same Jihadists the U.S. has been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military chief in Tripoli, as one example among many, was the founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a terrorist organization that merged with al Qaeda in 2007 while supplying foreign fighters to attack American troops.

Obama also neglected to mention that — even based on his own past statements — U.S. Presidents do not have the authority to wage war without congressional approval. UN resolutions or calls by the Arab League, of course, are not a substitute for the Constitution.

But even while lauding international military actions, Obama also boasted that the U.S. government was working to dismantle its nuclear arsenal. “To lift the specter of mass destruction, we must come together to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” he told the assembled rulers, saying America’s deployed arsenals would soon be at their lowest level in 50 years.

A significant portion of the speech was devoted to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, with Obama seemingly trying to please both sides. Saying that “the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own” and that they “deserve to know the territorial basis of their state,” he also noted that Israel’s security needed to be assured.

“We seek a future where Palestinians live in a sovereign state of their own, with no limit to what they can achieve,” he said. “There is no question that the Palestinians have seen that vision delayed for too long.” On the other hand, Obama noted that “any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day.”

In the months and weeks ahead, the UN should focus on getting the parties to “sit down together” and “understand each other’s hopes and fears,” Obama said. “That is the project to which America is committed.”

And beyond meddling in the affairs of other nations or invading them to overthrow their leaders, Obama said the UN should be more involved in everything from public health, education and “gay rights” to the earth’s climate and global poverty. “We must act on the belief that freedom from want is a basic human right,” he declared.

And the global economy represents a particularly significant opportunity for the global body to expand its powers. “We acted together to avert a Depression in 2009,” Obama claimed, presumably referring to multilateral bailouts of banks and new global financial regulations and economic institutions. “We must take urgent and coordinated action once more.”

Claiming that the world body helped avert a third World War, Obama called on the assembled rulers in attendance — mostly totalitarian regimes — to keep working together ever more fervently. “Peace is hard, but we know that it is possible,” he said.

But even as Obama was celebrating his unconstitutional use of America’s armed forces and downplaying the resulting tragedies, a recent poll shows U.S. troops are quickly losing confidence in the President and his strategy. Less than a quarter of those surveyed supported his illegal intervention in Libya, for example. And just 25 percent approve of his overall performance.

“When the cornerstone of this very building was put in place, President Truman came here to New York and said, ‘The United Nations is essentially an expression of the moral nature of man’s aspirations,’” Obama concluded. “As we live in a world that is changing at a breathtaking pace, that is a lesson that we must never forget.”